Two months ago, it would have been a surprise for Bartolo Colon to be pitching in the Yankees' rotation. Now, it's surprising when he doesn't pitch well.

Colon seemed on his way to another gem Monday night, but a five-run sixth inning blew the game open for the Blue Jays, who handed the Yankees a 7-3 loss at the Stadium to snap their two-game Subway Series winning streak.

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Colon allowed six runs on seven hits and a season-high four walks, including two intentionally in the Jays' five-run sixth. Colon also issued a bases-loaded walk in the big inning.

"Bartolo has been so good for us," Joe Girardi said. "He gave up a couple hits and he walked a guy, and you don't usually see that from Bartolo, walking guys. It happened quick."

Once the Yankees fell behind, the Blue Jays bullpen picked up where starter Carlos Villanueva had left off. Villanueva allowed one run over five innings, while four relievers held on over the final four. Toronto's staff limited the Yankees to two hits in 15 at-bats with runners in scoring position, a familiar situation for the Bombers in recent weeks.

"It can be a really frustrating game if you allow it to be," Brett Gardner said. "We're not going to go out there and score six or eight or 10 runs every night. Today was one of those days. We didn't get a whole lot going."

The standings remained unchanged at the top, as the Rays and Red Sox also lost Monday night. The Yankees and Rays remain in a first-place tie, a half-game ahead of the Red Sox. The Blue Jays are 1-1/2 games back while the Orioles are 31/2 behind, creating a five-team logjam nearly 50 games into the season.

"We've been playing pretty good, I think," Derek Jeter said. "We'd won five out of six coming into this one. Yeah, you'd like to string together 10 or 15 wins in a row, but it's not always going to be the case. But you keep playing. We have a lot of games, and if you continue to do some good things, then the wins will come."

Jose Bautista pounced on an 0-1 pitch by Colon, drilling a line drive into the Blue Jays' bullpen in left-center field - his league-leading 19th home run of the season.

Colon brushed aside the Bautista blow and came up with four scoreless innings, striking out seven through the fifth.

Villanueva did his part, limiting the Yankees to one run in the fourth on a Robinson Cano sac fly, matching Colon through five innings.

Corey Patterson led off the sixth with a double, then Colon intentionally walked Bautista. Yunel Escobar bunted the runners to second and third, prompting Girardi to order an intentional walk to Juan Rivera to load the bases with one out.

Aaron Hill gave the Yankees the ground ball they were looking for, but it scooted through the left side of the infield, scoring Patterson to give the Blue Jays a 2-1 lead.

"I went out there and told him what I wanted to do, and he said whatever you want to do is all right with me," Girardi said in explaining the intentional walks. "We've got a ground-ball pitcher on the mound, the next three guys were 0-for-6 with four strikeouts. We took a shot and it didn't work."

Colon followed with a rare four-pitch walk to Eric Thames, who entered the game with 13 career at-bats after being called up last week. Colon had walked only 11 batters in 51-1/3 innings this season before Monday night.